A review of a strategic roadmapping exercise to advance clinical translation of photoacoustic imaging: From current barriers to future adoption

Hisham Assi¹, Rui Cao², Madhura Castelino³, Ben Cox⁴, Fiona J Gilbert⁵, Janek Gröhl^{6

7}, Kurinchi Gurusamy⁸, Lina Hacker^{6

7}, Aoife M Ivory⁹, James Joseph¹⁰, Ferdinand Knieling¹¹, Martin J Leahy¹², Ledia Lilaj¹³, Srirang Manohar¹⁴, Igor Meglinski¹⁵, Carmel Moran¹⁶, Andrea Murray¹⁷, Alexander A Oraevsky¹⁸, Mark D Pagel¹⁹, Manojit Pramanik²⁰, Jason Raymond²¹, Mithun Kuniyil Ajith Singh²², William C Vogt²³, Lihong Wang², Shufan Yang²⁴, Members Of Ipasc^{6

7}, Sarah E Bohndiek^{6

7}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, Canada.
² Caltech Optical Imaging Laboratory, Andrew and Peggy Cherng Department of Medical Engineering, Department of Electrical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
³ Department of Rheumatology, University College London Hospital, London, UK.
⁴ Department of Medical Physics and Bioengineering, University College London, London, UK.
⁵ Department of Radiology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
⁶ Department of Physics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
⁷ CRUK Cambridge Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
⁸ Department of Surgical Biotechnology, University College London, London, UK.
⁹ Department of Medical, Marine and Nuclear Physics, National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, UK.
¹⁰ School of Science and Engineering, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK.
¹¹ Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, University Hospital Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität, Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany.
¹² School of Natural Sciences - Physics, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland.
¹³ iThera Medical GmbH, Munich, Germany.
¹⁴ TechMed Centre, University of Twente, the Netherlands.
¹⁵ College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, UK.
¹⁶ Centre for Cardiovascular Science, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
¹⁷ Centre for Musculoskeletal Research, University of Manchester, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre (MAHSC), Salford Care Organisation, NCA NHS Foundation Trust, UK.
¹⁸ TomoWave Laboratories, Inc. Houston, TX, USA.
¹⁹ Department of Cancer Systems Imaging, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA.
²⁰ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA.
²¹ Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, UK.
²² CYBERDYNE, INC, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
²³ Center for Devices and Radiological Health, US Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD, USA.
²⁴ School of Computing, Edinburgh Napier University, UK.

PMID: 37600964
PMCID: PMC10432856
DOI: 10.1016/j.pacs.2023.100539

Review

A review of a strategic roadmapping exercise to advance clinical translation of photoacoustic imaging: From current barriers to future adoption

Hisham Assi et al. Photoacoustics. 2023.

. 2023 Aug 2:32:100539.

doi: 10.1016/j.pacs.2023.100539. eCollection 2023 Aug.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, Canada.
² Caltech Optical Imaging Laboratory, Andrew and Peggy Cherng Department of Medical Engineering, Department of Electrical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
³ Department of Rheumatology, University College London Hospital, London, UK.
⁴ Department of Medical Physics and Bioengineering, University College London, London, UK.
⁵ Department of Radiology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
⁶ Department of Physics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
⁷ CRUK Cambridge Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
⁸ Department of Surgical Biotechnology, University College London, London, UK.
⁹ Department of Medical, Marine and Nuclear Physics, National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, UK.
¹⁰ School of Science and Engineering, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK.
¹¹ Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, University Hospital Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität, Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany.
¹² School of Natural Sciences - Physics, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland.
¹³ iThera Medical GmbH, Munich, Germany.
¹⁴ TechMed Centre, University of Twente, the Netherlands.
¹⁵ College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, UK.
¹⁶ Centre for Cardiovascular Science, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
¹⁷ Centre for Musculoskeletal Research, University of Manchester, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre (MAHSC), Salford Care Organisation, NCA NHS Foundation Trust, UK.
¹⁸ TomoWave Laboratories, Inc. Houston, TX, USA.
¹⁹ Department of Cancer Systems Imaging, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA.
²⁰ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA.
²¹ Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, UK.
²² CYBERDYNE, INC, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
²³ Center for Devices and Radiological Health, US Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD, USA.
²⁴ School of Computing, Edinburgh Napier University, UK.

PMID: 37600964
PMCID: PMC10432856
DOI: 10.1016/j.pacs.2023.100539

Abstract

Photoacoustic imaging (PAI), also referred to as optoacoustic imaging, has shown promise in early-stage clinical trials in a range of applications from inflammatory diseases to cancer. While the first PAI systems have recently received regulatory approvals, successful adoption of PAI technology into healthcare systems for clinical decision making must still overcome a range of barriers, from education and training to data acquisition and interpretation. The International Photoacoustic Standardisation Consortium (IPASC) undertook an community exercise in 2022 to identify and understand these barriers, then develop a roadmap of strategic plans to address them. Here, we outline the nature and scope of the barriers that were identified, along with short-, medium- and long-term community efforts required to overcome them, both within and beyond the IPASC group.

Keywords: Clinical translation; Optoacoustic tomography; Phantoms; Photoacoustic imaging; Quality assurance; Standardisation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: The promotions and salary of Kurinchi Gurusamy are dependent upon journal publications. Ferdinand Knieling is co-inventor with iThera Medical GmbH, Germany on an EU patent (EP 19 163 304.9) relating to a device and a method for analysing optoacoustic data, an optoacoustic system and a computer program. He received travel support by iThera Medical GmbH, Germany, lecture fees from Sanofi Genzyme and Siemens Healthcare GmbH outside the submitted work. Given his role as Section Editor of this journal, Ferdinand Knieling had no involvement in the peer-review of articles for which he was an author and had no access to information regarding their peer-review. AAO is an employee and stock holder of TomoWave and Seno Medical, which develop and sell optoacoustic tomography systems. Given his role as the Editor in Chief of this Journal, AAO had no involvement in the peer-review process or the decisions regarding acceptance of manuscripts for which he is an author. Given her role as an Editorial Board member of this journal, Sarah Bohndiek had no involvement in the peer-review of articles for which she was an author and had no access to information regarding their peer-review. Full responsibility for the peer-review process for this article was delegated to another Editor. Martin Leahy is the inventor of WIPO patent (WO2015110349A1) relating to photoacoustic tomography method and system which uses known intrinsic absorbers for fluence correction. Lihong Wang has a financial interest in Microphotoacoustics, Inc., CalPACT, LLC, and Union Photoacoustic Technologies, Ltd., which, however, did not support this work. Ledia Lilaj is an employee of iThera Medical GmbH, a vendor of optoacoustic imaging instruments. Mithun Kuniyil Ajith Singh is an employee of CYBERDYNE Inc, a vendor of photoacoustic imaging instruments. The other authors do not declare any conflicts of interest.

Figures

**Fig. 1**
Mapping the barriers identified, separated horizontally, onto their position in the clinical translational pipeline, shown in the vertical direction. The translational pipeline is divided according to phases of discovery, validation and qualification, as defined previously . Each of the thematic groupings of barriers (left to right: clinical adoption, standards development, test objects and methods, and data management) are explained in more detail in the text and form the basis of the output roadmaps.

**Fig. 2**
Roadmap for clinical adoption activities. OEM = original equipment manufacturer.

**Fig. 3**
Roadmap for standards activities.

**Fig. 4**
Roadmap for the development of stable test objects and methods. SOP=Standard operating procedure.

**Fig. 5**
Roadmap for the development of a comprehensive PA database that can function as a validation framework and aid in the understanding of technical and methodological limitations.

**Fig. 6**
Summary of the goals of IPASC emerging from the roadmapping workshop.

See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

1. Wang, L. v & Hu, S. Photoacoustic Tomography: In Vivo Imaging from Organelles to Organs. 〈https://www.science.org〉. - PMC - PubMed
1. Oraevsky A.A., Karabutov A.A. In: Biomedical Photonics Handbook. Vo-Dinh T., editor. CRC Press; 2003. Optoacoustic tomography.
1. Lemaster J.E., Jokerst J. v. What is new in nanoparticle-based photoacoustic imaging? Wiley Interdiscip. Rev.: Nanomed. Nanobiotechnology. 2017;9 doi: 10.1002/wnan.1404. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
1. Weber J., Beard P.C., Bohndiek S.E. Contrast agents for molecular photoacoustic imaging. Nat. Methods. 2016;13:639–650. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.3929. - DOI - PubMed
1. Zhang Y., Olick-Gibson J., Khadria A., Wang L.V. Photoacoustic vector tomography for deep hemodynamic imaging. Nat. Biomed. Eng. Press. 2023 - PMC - PubMed

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A review of a strategic roadmapping exercise to advance clinical translation of photoacoustic imaging: From current barriers to future adoption

Affiliations

A review of a strategic roadmapping exercise to advance clinical translation of photoacoustic imaging: From current barriers to future adoption

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

Figures

References

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources

Medical